Intelligent Manufacturing & Mechatronics

In manufacturing industries, many working tasks require their workers to perform the works in push-pull activities. The workers need to push or pull the tool or material handling in a long distance into a workplace and performing these activities continuously throughout the working hours, may lead to an early initiation of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) symptoms as workers developed muscle fatigue particularly concerning the hand muscles. Grip strength is the force applied by the hand to pull objects and is a part of hand strength. This paper is about the mathematical model of biomechanical factors that contributes to fatigue while worker involved on the push activities in manufacturing industry. The experimental was conducted by using Tekscan system to evaluate the muscle fatigue and hand grip pressure force while workers performing pushing excessive loads. The input parameters were time exposure, hand side and body mass index (BMI); while the output responses are muscle fatigue (voltage), hand grip pressure force (left hand), and hand grip pressure force (right hand). An important parameter that affects the output response is also identified. The finding result from mathematical model for both factors, show that the muscle fatigue was influenced by time exposure, hand side, BMI, and interaction between hand side and BMI; while hand grip pressure force was influenced by time exposure, hand side, BMI, interaction between time exposure and hand side, interaction between time exposure and BMI, and interaction between hand side and BMI.

In composite manufacturing, hand layup is of the fabrication methods that is widely used. Composite is the basic material used in the manufacturing of products such as shipbuilding and the process requires manual handling. Currently, there is a significant number of absenteeism that due to low back pain, indicating that workers in manual composite manufacturing have problems related to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). The objective of this paper is to study the working posture and discomforts experienced by workers in layup process station. A preliminary survey is conducted on 45 workers to obtain their experience of discomforts while working. Survey results show that 83.33% of the workers experience discomforts on the lower back of the body. When rating their level of pain on the lower back on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), 41% of them rated 4 on the level pain. Pain and discomforts lead to lower productivity of workers. Consequently, this can jeopardise the quality of the products. At the layup station, this problem arises due to the design of current workspace and the posture of workers when executing the job tasks. Rapid Upper Limb Analysis in CATIA V5R20 software was used to calculate the RULA scores. All postures had scored more than 6 that need further investigation and immediate change. Ergonomically designed layup workstations and good education on proper working posture will be able to improve the workers’ health conditions on the future.

The software Digital Enterprise Lean Manufacturing Interactive Application (DELMIA) is a virtual simulation software that was used in digital product manufacturing. In contrast with Computer Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application (CATIA), DELMIA ergonomics feature is built with Human Task Simulation which can simulate the design workspace virtually. However, population available for the human manikin population are excluding Malaysian population. This study is aiming to investigate the gap and the error of anthropometry data in Malaysian manufacturing workers between the Japanese and American population in DELMIA V5R2016. A sample population of 241 people at manufacturing industries was taken in this study. The total number of anthropometric parameters used for experimentation are 100 parameters obtained from literature studies. The American and Japanese population are chosen to represent the Caucasian and Asian population for comparison of 15 randomly selected parameters of anthropometry. There are several mismatches found in the anthropometry parameter between the three comparisons of the population where the percentage of error and gap in between populations are more than 5%. In conclusion, this study recommended that future research increase the sample size of the anthropometry subjects for database comparison. For future research, it is recommended to use other methods available for measurement such as digital measurement for the anthropometry database to compare the accuracy with the traditional measuring method.

Manufacturing enterprise today crucially needs computer numerical control (CNC) to employ higher level input languages and reducing dependency on proprietary system. In traditional CNC system, most predefined numerical control (NC) commands programmed at early stage were often found to be unsuitable or sometimes unusable especially when the machining process was interrupted by unscheduled event. This will result in additional effort spent for advance process planning and NC code generation. Moreover, readjustment of the program consumes time and requires high skills. To address this issue, considerable efforts are being undertaken to improve CNC system by replacing traditional CNC to a next generation of intelligent CNC. This paper proposes a framework for adaptive controller of an open CNC system by merging established STEP-NC and IEC 61499 standards. This project applies STEP-NC as data input program; taking advantages offered by both standards. IEC 61499 is a layered architecture function that simplifies controller design and enhances the controller performance. As a result, both decision making and control activities are embedded inside the controller architecture whereby optimal machining parameters are issued automatically based on available online machine resources. Hence, a tool-path will be generated just-in-time by the CNC controller. The generated tool path can be directly used to drive the open architecture machine tool without any intermediate.

The aim of this project is to develop a fully automated electrode wear detection system in EDM by using machine vision system and apply this system in detecting electrode wear in EDM drilling. Machine vision system was image-based technology used to perform automatic inspection and analysis of the electrode wear for EDM drilling. The high resolution’s DSLR camera as monitoring device to capture the image. The brass electrode with the diameter of 3 mm undergo hole making process with a depth of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mm to obtain the level of wear. The images of the electrodes were remotely captured using DSLR camera then read from the laptop and undergo image processing process using Matlab software to calculate and determine the electrode wear. The result showed the wear percentage of the electrode is 4.235% for 10–30 mm in depth and 3.59% for depth of 30–50 mm. This project showed that the developed system was suitable and applicable in monitor an EDM electrode super drill machine.

In milling cutting process, tracking performance of the CNC servo drive system is influenced by the characteristics of the cutting forces generated during the milling operation. The undesired frequency harmonics of the cutting force contributes negatively to the positioning accuracy; thus an effective compensation of these harmonics is desired. This paper presents results related to suppression of cutting forces in milling process for minimal impact on tracking performance using controller design approach. A cascade P/PI position controller was designed and numerically analysed in combination with an Inverse Model Based Disturbance Observer (IMBDO) plus Disturbance Force Observer (DFO). The effectiveness of this control approach was validated on the x-axis of the XY feed table of a ball-screw driven milling machine. Results showed that the combined approach of cascade P/PI controller with IMBDO plus DFO produced the best tracking control performance with reduction of 78.8% in magnitude component of the cutting forces using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of the tracking errors; compared to individual dedicated approach using IMBDO (62.7%) and DFO (78.2%) respectively.

Silicone rubber (SiR) is the most common material used nowadays for composite insulators and as a chosen candidate for outdoor high voltage applications, benefited from their excellent electrical performance. However, SiR also suffered from many drawbacks since electrical properties are becoming the major factors to the failure of insulation. Thus, by varying filler loading also is considered as an alternative way to improve the properties of SiR based composite insulator. In this paper presents the results of erosion weight and inclined plane tracking test for SiR based composite prepared by using different types of fillers. The purpose of using different fillers is to improve the properties of silicone rubber as an insulator which is necessary for good outdoor insulation applications. Calcium carbonate, silica and wollastonite were used as fillers in SiR matrix to enhance the resistance to tracking and erosion. The performances of materials also have been compared by conducting inclined plane tracking (IPT) test. Eroded mass and tracking length were examined to support the result. It is found that CaSiO₃ had proved their ability as good fillers to be integrated with SiR for high voltage insulator by having the utmost number of passing sample.

This paper presents improvements on conventional cascade P/PI position control structure with implementation of nonlinear function onto the existing control structure resulting in cascade NP/PI controller. The controller design process involved three main steps, namely; (i) design of PI controller for the speed loop, (ii) design of P controller for the position loop, and (iii) design of the nonlinear function. The speed and position controllers were designed based on gain margin and phase margin considerations. There were three main elements involved in the design of the nonlinear function, namely; rate of variation of nonlinear gain (KO), maximum value of error, (e_max) and sampling frequency, (δ). Results obtained from implementation on the x-axis of a milling machine feed table shows that the proposed cascade NP/PI controller generated an improvement of 1.3% in tracking performance in term of RMS error values compared to the classical cascade P/PI controller.

Characterization of magnetic nanoparticles is crucial in order to optimize them for different applications requiring specific characteristics. In this article, we report a characterization system using AC susceptibility method. An AC magnetometer system which is composed of the induction coil and resonant capacitors is developed to evaluate the performance of the magnetic nanoparticles. The induction coil consists of excitation and detection coil. The excitation coil is designed with solenoid coils and fabricated with a Litz wire which is composed of 60 strands of copper wire with 0.1 mm diameter to reduce the increase of AC resistance at high frequency. The detection coil is designed to be a first-order differential coil which is used to reduce the environmental noise and cancel the excitation magnetic field. The detection coil is fabricated with a copper wire and it is placed at the center of the excitation coil. The excitation coil is connected to the resonant capacitors to cancel the reactant component and to permit the high magnetic field in the high-frequency region. The resonant capacitors are fabricated with multiple values of capacitors. When the developed system is in the resonant mode, the current flow is constant up to the frequency of 32.5 kHz. The developed system can evaluate the magnetic nanoparticles at different frequency responses. Using the developed system, it is shown that the Neel particles exist inside the solution of magnetic nanoparticles used in this study.

In multi-holes drilling process, the tool movement and tool switching consumed on average 70% of the total machining time. Tool path optimization is able to reduce the time taken in machining process. This paper is focus on the modeling and optimization of multi-holes drilling path. The problem is modeled as traveling salesman problem (TSP) and optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). To test the PSO performance, 15 test problems were created with different range of holes numbers. The optimization results from PSO were compared with other top algorithms such Genetic Algorithm and Ant Colony Optimization algorithm. PSO is also compared with another algorithm like Whale Optimization Algorithm, Ant Lion Optimizer, Dragonfly Algorithm, Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm, Moth-flame Optimization and Sine Cosine Algorithm. The result indicates that PSO algorithm is performed better than comparison algorithms. PSO algorithm gives the minimum value of fitness path and their CPU time compared to other algorithms. Hence, the smaller their value, the algorithm is better and more efficient. In future, researchers should more focus on environmental issues and energy consumption for sustainable manufacturing. Besides, need to explore other potential of new meta-heuristics algorithms to increase the hole drilling operation efficiencies.

Three-Dimensional (3D) printing is emerging as an enabling technology for a wide range of new applications. This study focuses on the medical application of 3D printer using basic fundamental 3D printing mechanisms. The objective of this study is to develop a heart model with specific requirements for medical training using Flyingbear P902 3D printer and Flex Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) filaments as the depositing materials. The study involved two trials with the same operation procedure and 3D printer specifications. The first trial utilized non-transparent TPU filament and the second trial utilized transparent TPU filament. The application of this technology in developing a heart model was evaluated based on the requirements fulfilled by both printed heart models in both trials. The problems (such as inflexibility and less transparency), limitations and proposed solutions are discussed. The emergence of cardiovascular diseases such as congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, surgical and catheter-based structural disease make 3D printing a new tool to design, plan and carry out challenging cardiovascular interventions.

The material handling equipment adds utilization to the performance level of the manufacturing process. Thus, by investigating the influences of AMHS and at the same time seeing the effect of changing its layout in automotive assembly process help the research in improvising the system easier and guaranteed to be success. A case study focus at the material flow of warehouse to assembly shop is done and the result show the work is done manually and has a lot of time are wasted. From the case study, an approach tool are used to simulate the system by using Delmia Quest simulation software. 4 models are simulated which consist of AGV and tugger train as transportation system, 2 layouts which are the current used layout in case study and new layout, and the supply order system which are picking list and pick-to-light system. The result shows the number of part deliveries highly increase by the changed of layout in the system in model 4. The deliveries able to achieve 3 times value from the current old system in the factory. As the system improves with the change of supply order system and layout in model 3 and 4, the idle time reduce to below 0.5 h and maintain linearly in the system. Lastly, it can be summarized that the improvement shows the influences of automated material handling system and facility layout in increasing the performance of the automotive assembly factory.

In general, Aerospace industry has been developing significantly throughout the economy as demands on technology in advanced transportation is increasing. Furthermore, as a multi-billion dollar industry, the efforts is needed to sustain high quality of products for safety, minimizing waste during process and increase in a pace of manufacturing. Therefore, Six Sigma tool which is DMAIC approach is chosen to presents a case of an efficient and systematic method of improvement cycle ‘Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control’ to define and analysis defect, hence to improve the quality of production in aerospace industry. In this study, the focus is done by studying how the implementation of Six Sigma on an aerospace company especially to solve the problem of uncertainty condition of Delta-E for Panel Coating. By using the DMAIC approaches, defects and problems that arise in the production line of the company are being sorted out and solved. Trials and experiments were also conducted on the company’s production line and the data is being collected for analysis and study purpose. Through observation and data taken from above problem, analyzed results perform remarkable solution to be applied by Aerospace Industry.

In contrast to the machining of metallic materials, drilling of the fiber reinforced composite materials presented unique challenges as its cutting behavior differs in several aspects. This work presents an analysis to determine the drilling characteristics in carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) composite using HSS twist drill, HSS brad drill and carbide dagger drill. The study is based on Taguchi’s method and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The experiments were conducted to quantify the statistical contributions of the spindle speed and feed rate for those three drills. The results indicated that the feed rate is recognized to make the most significant contribution to the thrust force, which reflects the hole quality and tool wear. In overall, brad drill promoted better hole quality at the exit side. A low thrust force, insignificant hole defect and hence, better drill condition was obtained with this drill at a cutting speed of 800 rpm and feed rate of 0.04 mm/rev.

Friction stir processing (FSP) involves the mixing reinforcement particles on metal surface and the control of its dispersion is more difficult to attain with conventional techniques such as casting. The objective of present work was to perform tribology characterization of Al alloys Al-6061 and Al-6061 with 5 weight % Al₂O₃ produced using FSP. The parameters involved were rotation speed 1000, 1200 and 1400 rpm and traversed speed constant at 25 mm/min. The results show that the surface roughness with the presence of the reinforcement demonstrated better surface roughness compared to specimens with no reinforcement. Furthermore, high increment of the tool rotation speed indicates the declined value of the coefficient of friction of the specimen material.

This research develops a knowledge-based ergonomics assessment system (KBEAS) that measure and predicts the degree of criticality of risk factors related to work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD). Predicting WMSD individual risk level provides critical decision support information to occupational safety and health (OSH) practitioners in the ergonomic analysis. The KBEAS is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology. The current study integrates AHP method with real workplace ergonomics risk data and design web-based system assisting a sensible multi-criteria WMSD related risk factors. The objectives involve knowledge acquisition performed through preliminary study, MSD symptom study, literature analysis, and tacit knowledge analysis and practitioner survey to identify the ergonomics risk factors that include individual, organizational, physical and psychosocial. The application of this system shows that the design of the proposed KBEAS for WMSD risk factors has been validated and gets each risk factors weight easily by using AHP. The study findings showed that ‘organizational ergonomics risk factors’ is more critical than other factors. The overall prioritization revealed that ‘exposure to physical demands’ had a priority vector of 26.33%, and it was perceived as the item with the most critical factor. The KBEAS could help the user to make an objective judgement on the subjective description and get the correct result of the ergonomics risk factors.

This paper evaluates the efficacy of different classical control architectures in performing grasping motion. The exoskeleton system was obtained via system identification method in which the input and output data was measured by means of current sensor (ACS712) and encoder attached to a DC geared motor (SPG30e-270k). The data obtained is split with a ratio of 70:30 for estimation and validation, respectively. The transfer function of the system is evaluated by varying the number of poles and zeros that are able to fit well with validation data. The performance of the classical P, PI, PD and PID control techniques were then evaluated in its ability to track the desired trajectory. It was demonstrated from the study that the PID controller provides the least steady state error as well as a reasonably fast settling time.

Rehabilitation devices have become one of the more sought-after focus areas among researchers in the robotics field, where it could be used to assist patients in the process of stroke recovery. Therefore, the motivation of this thesis is to further investigate the planar end-effector upper limb rehabilitation device as a viable solution for patients with movement disorders, instead of the more expensive alternative of exoskeleton robots. This paper illustrates the mathematical modelling and simulation of a planar end-effector rehabilitation device for the upper limb. The rehabilitation device is of two degrees of freedom, and is used in this research due to its cost effectiveness and practicality. The derivation of the forward and inverse kinematics of the robotic system is established by using the Denavit-Hartenberg algorithm, which is proceeded to be used in the trajectory tracking of the end-effector of the device, as well as the programming of the feedback control system to control the actuators used in the system. The results of the simulation suggest that the mathematical modelling of the system is able to predict the behaviour of the system, which is to be implemented in this robotic device for upper limb rehabilitation.

Researchers having same interest in field of human-robot interaction (HRI) have made large investments in robots for the purpose of interacting with human. However, there is still sparse evidence regarding response of person between animal robots and animals are different. Animal-robot PARO is classified as Class II medical device by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). PARO has a potential to be used as assistive device for treatment of mental illness specially dementia and depression. PARO is helpful through improving mood and help patients to be calm. The aim of this study is to explore the difference among evaluation of the animal-robot by the people in Malaysia. The constructed questions were focused to find out respondent’s background such as age and gender, direct effect interaction with PARO, and preferable duration of interact session. Subjective evaluation of animal-robot PARO was conducted during Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education (STEM) exhibitions that were held in Negeri Sembilan and Melaka. Statistical analysis was conducted with total of 120 respondent using dataset. 95.8% responds agree that PARO able to make them calm. Both adult and children dislike PARO with the percentage less than 5%. Half an hour was chosen as the best time so spend with PARO. In future, PARO will be used as a device in rehabilitation center to assists in depression therapy.

This paper introduces the shortest path planning for a noncircular omnidirectional mobile robot. A* and Dijkstra algorithms are evaluated for the shortest path problems in terms of efficiency and time complexity. The Dijkstra algorithm is selected due to its efficiency in the greedy searching and it is integrated to occupancy grid map with the consideration of the vehicle body constraint. Simulation via MATLAB is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system.

This paper presents a first account of a public interaction with a remote-manipulation of a pneumatic pick and place robot during a public STEM engagement. A team of mobile STEM workshop group has participated in a STEM Carnival in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Negeri Sembilan and Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. The aim of the engagement is to build public and student awareness of the advancement of remote-manipulation technology, and to observe their acceptance and interest of the system. The history of STEM education and remote-manipulation of robotic system are provided in the first part of the paper. The second and third part of this paper is dedicated to the preparation and implementation of the proposed system in the field. The last section is dedicated to the survey results and conclusion of the project.

This paper describes the experience of UTeM AUV team during an autonomous underwater vehicle international competition. The competition provides the participants with the opportunity to experience the engineering challenges during the development of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems. The competition focuses on underwater vehicle technology development that emphasizes on the autonomous operations of the vehicle in a swimming pool.

This project deals with the mathematical modelling and controller design for autonomous Wheeled Mobile Robot (WMR) by using motion tracking system. The mobile robot vehicle has two driving wheels and the angular speed of the two wheels is the controlled variable. Three reflected markers are attached on a robot to form a 3D rigid body. Motion tracker will track the 3D rigid body in terms of x, y position and orientation θ. Mathematical modelling which is a set of Multi Input Single Output model is done by using System Identification Toolbox in Matlab. Three different controller namely Proportional (P), Proportional Differential (PD) and Proportional Integral Differential (PID) controller are designed for this WMR. The mathematical model obtained from the System Identification has about 95% accuracy. In controller performance, the result shows that P, PD and PID controller have no overshoot for the forward movement. However, the percent overshoot of P, PD and PID controller when the robot is turning on side direction are around 51%, 63% and 48%, respectively. Additionally, the steady state error for all controllers is 0%.

This paper describes the development of an autonomous underwater vehicle for a competition that gives participants the opportunity to experience the engineering challenges of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) systems and develop skills in underwater technology. The competition focuses on the autonomous operations in the pool, with four tasks to be completed. The inertial measurement unit, depth sensor and Pixy (CMUcam5) camera are used in AUV navigation, while Arduino Uno is used for the overall controls. Field test has been conducted during the Malaysian Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge (MAUVC) during the IEEE 7th International Conference on Underwater System Technology USYS in Kuala Lumpur. The outcome of the test will be studied for the preparation of the next Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge, which will be held in Singapore.

Quad-rotor Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) is a multi-rotor MAV with four propellers which propel the MAV up to the air and move around. It has high maneuverability to move around, such as roll, pitch and yaw movements. However, line of sight and radio control effective range are the major limitation for the MAVs which significantly shorten the travel distance. Therefore, we proposed a waypoint navigation quad-rotor MAV based on Fuzzy-PID controller in this paper. User can set mission with multiple waypoint and the Fuzzy-PID controller will control MAV autonomously moving along the waypoint to the desired position without remotely controlled by radio control and guidance of pilot. The results show Fuzzy-PID controller is capable to control MAV to move to the desired position with high accuracy. As the conclusion, Fuzzy-PID controller is successfully designed for waypoint navigation in quad-rotor MAV. The result shows that the overshoot percentage (%OS) of the designed Fuzzy-PID controller for x position is 2.17% while y position is 0.93%. Additionally, the steady-state error for x position and y position are 0.54% and 0.56% respectively. Therefore, the performance of Fuzzy-PID controller is better than PID controller.

This paper presents a tree climbing robot which moves spirally around a pole-like tree of having a circumference of around 40 cm. The aim of this work is to ease the work of inducing Aquilaria trees. The designed robot is able to climb with overall weight of the robot can carry is limit to 10 kg. The robot utilizes the wheel mechanism as the locomotion of the robot. Driving module uses two DC motors, and the robot also uses a set of springs and castor balls as a supporting mechanism. To achieve the robot spiral climbing morphology, two DC motors are used as the steering module. At the current stage of development, the angle of climbing is controlled manually by DIP-switches. The advantages of this robot are low cost, uses simple mechanism, easy to control and fabricate. The robot has been built and successfully tested on a tree trunk and PVC tube. Experiment has been carried out to evaluate the speed performances of the prototype. Results indicate that the robot is able to climb in spiral motion with largest error recorded at 13.9%.

This paper reports an investigation of Data-Driven PID tuning based on Safe Experimentation Dynamics (SED) for control of the Double-Pendulum-Type Overhead Crane (DPTOC) system. The SED algorithm is used to find the optimal PID parameters such that the hook and load swing angles are minimized. Performance comparison between the SED based method and Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) based method for data-driven PID tuning is observed and discussed. The performance is evaluated by numerical example in terms of trolley trajectory tracking, hook and load swings reduction and control input energy. The findings demonstrated that the SED based data-driven PID is capable to reduce the hook and load swing angles while maintain the desired trolley trajectory position. In addition, faster settling time for control input energy is obtained.

This paper presents the design and implementation of the integral super twisting sliding mode control for the tracking control of a linearized model of longitudinal plane autonomous underwater glider. The performance of the proposed controller is evaluated in terms of chattering reduction in control input for the nominal system as well as the system in the presence of external disturbance. The controller is designed for the gliding path from 45° to 30° downward and upward. The performance of the proposed controller is compared with the quasi sliding mode control (boundary layer), integral sliding control, and super twisting sliding mode control. The simulation results have shown that the proposed controller is able to eliminate the undesired chattering.in control inputs.

The biggest bottleneck of currently available Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) is the cost of the systems. Therefore, to reduce operational costs and system complexity, the development of micro or handheld inspection ROVs has been increasing lately. An open-source underwater vehicle startup has contributed to the community by producing cheap ROVs, encouraging users to develop their own underwater vehicle. In this project, a low-cost ROV prototype, called X4-ROV using open-source OpenROV computer hardware and software is developed. This new design includes hardware, firmware, software and control architectures.

Lightweight wheeled rover locomotion has been the focus of research due to their reliability and simplicity of use. Soft sand inclines remain a challenge for wheeled rovers due to the high slippage and also a high risk for the wheels to dig into the sand and get stuck, due to the flowing nature of soft sand. During our previous work, we had proposed an assistive grouser mechanism that is attached to the sides of a conventional wheel, which had shown promising performance on soft sand inclines up to 30°. Power consumption pattern is important to lightweight rovers powered by onboard batteries traversing over terrain with high wheel rolling resistance such as soft sand. Therefore, this paper investigates the current consumption of a rover when using conventional wheels with fixed grousers compared to a rover using our proposed assistive grousers. The results show that on steep inclines, the assistive grousers are able to provide a relatively stable and lower current consumption when compared to when using a conventional wheel with fixed grousers.

Driving fatigue has been recognized as one of the significant contributory factors to the road accidents and fatalities in Malaysia. The aim of this study was to develop an ergonomic vehicle model (EVM) and decision support system (DSSfDF) model for improving the driving fatigue problem among the road users. The ergonomic vehicle model uses to capture the user information data and acts as the database storage to store all the input data and information. While the decision support system provides a systematic analysis and solution to minimize the risk and the number of accidents associated with driving fatigue. There are 6 main components as the pillars for the development of EVM and DSSfDF model; ergonomics evaluation tools, graphical user interface (GUI), ergonomics database, working memory, inference engine, and knowledge base. Both models are essential system and reliable advisory tool for providing analysis on risk factors that contribute significantly to driving fatigue and providing solutions and recommendation to the problem related to driving fatigue. Further analysis and validation are required in future to get the reliable system before being commercialized.

The utilisation of artificial intelligence for prediction and classification in the sport of archery is still in its infancy. The present study classified and predicted high and low potential archers from a set of fitness and motor ability variables trained on artificial neural network (ANN). 50 youth archers with the mean age and standard deviation of (17.00 ± 0.56) drawn from various archery programmes completed a one end archery shooting score test. Standard fitness and ability measurements of hand grip, vertical jump, standing broad jump, static balance, upper muscle strength and the core muscle were conducted. The cluster analysis was used to cluster the archers based on the performance variables tested to high performing archers (HPA) and low performing archers (LPA), respectively. ANN was used to train the measured performance variables. The five-fold cross-validation technique was utilised in the study. It was established that the ANN model is able to demonstrate a reasonably excellent classification on the evaluated indicators with a classification accuracy of 94% in classifying the HPA and the LPA.

The present study classified and predicted high and low potential archers from a set of bio-physiological variables trained via a machine learning technique namely k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN). 50 youth archers drawn from various archery programmes completed a one end archery shooting score test. Bio-physiological measurements of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, resting respiratory rate, resting heart rate and dietary intake were taken. Multiherachical agglomerative cluster analysis was used to cluster the archers based on the variables tested into low, medium and high potential archers. Three different k-NN models namely fine, medium and coarse were trained based on the measured variables. The five-fold cross-validation technique was utilised in the present investigation. It was shown from the present study, that the utilisation of k-NN is non-trivial in the classification of the performance of the archers.

This study classifies potential archers from a set of bio-mechanical indicators trained via different Support Vector Machine (SVM) models. 50 youth archers drawn from a number of archery programmes completed a one end archery shooting score test. Bio-mechanical evaluation of postural sway, bow movement, muscles activation of flexor and extensor as well as static balance were recorded. k-means clustering technique was used to cluster the archers based on the indicators tested. Fine, medium and coarse radial basis function kernel-based SVM models were trained based on the measured indicators. The five-fold cross-validation technique was utilised in the present investigation. It was shown from the present study, that the employment of SVM is able to assist coaches in identifying potential athletes in the sport of archery.

Fish Hunger behaviour is essential in determining the fish feeding routine, particularly for fish farmers. The inability to provide accurate feeding routines (under-feeding or over-feeding) may lead to the death of the fish and consequently inhibits the quantity of the fish produced. Moreover, the excessive food that is not consumed by the fish will be dissolved in the water and accordingly reduce the water quality through the reduction of oxygen quantity. This problem also leads to the death of the fish or even spur fish diseases. In the present study, a correlation of Barramundi fish-school behaviour with hunger condition through the hybrid data integration of image processing technique is established. The behaviour is clustered with respect to the position of the school size as well as the school density of the fish before feeding, during feeding and after feeding. The clustered fish behaviour is then classified through k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) learning algorithm. Three different variations of the algorithm namely, fine, medium and coarse are assessed on its ability to classify the aforementioned fish hunger behaviour. It was found from the study that the fine k-NN variation provides the best classification with an accuracy of 88%. Therefore, it could be concluded that the proposed integration technique may assist fish farmers in ascertaining fish feeding routine.

Sustainable practice is needed in every manufacturing industry. To make this practice successfully implemented in manufacturing industry, three indicators must be look into. The three indicators are environmental, economy and social indicator. In this paper, only economy indicator will be looked into for the implementation of intelligence tools. Economy indicator obtained from Design for Remanufacturing (DFREM) consists of several variables where cost will be substituted into the variables. However, industries are unaware that with this practice, an industry can save money and reduce waste from finished part. The industry can implement the economy indicator equation and substitute the cheapest value from several option provided by the supplier. This may cost time but in long term return, DFReM can make an industry to save money. In this paper, three intelligence tools will be used to make the best selection of cost to be substitute in DFReM equation. The intelligence tools are Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and combination of both FAHP and ANN. The objective of this paper is to compare the output result obtained from three intelligence tool. The final result shows FAHP and ANN provides the best solution, followed by ANN and lastly FAHP. Therefore, combination of FAHP and ANN should be used for selecting alternatives from supplier hence applied in DFReM economy indicator equation.

Mostly in natural disaster situations, for example an earthquake, we will face a situation where people get trapped and unable to be found as soon as possible due to the unpredictable terrain. Hence, robot is being seen as scouts that able to adapt and perceive, and usually snake type robot is able to move throughout rubble and small confines. Then, the idea of using modular self-reconfigurable (MSR) robots based on CEBOT in 1988 spark an interest to researchers to fit the search and rescue purpose. Besides that, the idea of controlling robots without manual control but by using “thinking” have fascinated researchers and lead to the development of interfaces between human and machines. In 1970, a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) system has been establish and the BCI system usually is based on the Electroencephalogram (EEG) which is the electrical potentials generated in which the information generated by user and independent of any muscular activities. The implementations of both technologies to each other will frontier for a new alternatives which improves self-reconfigurable modular robot in term of control strategy. As a preliminary framework, a simulation is needed to determine both systems capabilities, and it can be achieved by interfacing the robot simulator, OpenVIBE and Virtual Experimentation Platform (V-REP) with the Python programming language. This study presentation will focus on how to control the modular robot in V-REP environment by using Python language which can be used for interfacing with BCI system created in OpenVIBE software and the simulated robot configuration. Each joint handles of modular robot based on V-REP hierarchy being streamed by Python language. There are several methods for establishment of communication between OpenVIBE and other applications. The method purpose in this paper will utilizing Lab Streaming Layer (LSL) and Python script as mediator. The outcome that is expected to be obtained for this study will be the success of communication establish to control virtual modular robot based on data from OpenVIBE. The future work based on this study will involving the BCI system designed using OpenVIBE and implementation to real modular robot might be applied.

PID controller is one of the most common usable controller in controlling the velocity of brushed DC motor due to its reliability and simplicity. Classical design formulas to tune the PID parameter such as Ziegler-Nichols and Skogestad IMC produce less desirable results in terms of performance. In order to improve the performance, PID parameter is optimized by using Genetic Algorithm (GA) method. Integral of Time Multiplied by Absolute Error (ITAE) objective function is modified based on design requirements. The results obtained show that tuning method by using GA produce the best outcome. Rise time, settling time, percentage of overshoot yields from modified fitness function of GA is the fastest compare with Ziegler-Nichols, Skogestad IMC, and unmodified GA fitness function. The modification of ITAE fitness function improve the rise time and settling time by 76.63% and 78.29% respectively. All of the methods produce minimal steady-state error and is acceptable for velocity control application. Embedding the PID optimized by GA into the microcontroller and the comparison between the simulation and real-time application should be done in the future to evaluate the performance in real life application.

In this paper, a novel image template matching approach to tackle distance measurement problem has been proposed. There are many conventional algorithms to increase the accuracy of distance measurement as reported in the literature such as Semi-global algorithm to produce the disparity map. Meanwhile, in this paper, the reverse engineering technique had been implemented to get the correct depth value by applying the image template matching method as reference for the distance measurement. The traditional algorithm to solve image matching problem take a lot of memory and computational time. Therefore, image matching problem can be considered to optimization problem and can be solved precisely. The search of the image template has been performed exhaustively by using Simulated Kalman Filter (SKF) algorithm. The experiment is conducted with a set of images taken by using stereo vision system. Experimental results show the accuracy of the distance measurement by using stereo camera, after applying (1) the estimate error model, (2) SKF and (3) PSO algorithm are 89.95%, 96.09%, 95.29% and 58.51% respectively. The limitation of estimate error model that it can only be applied into the same setup of the experiment, environment, parameters of the camera and acquired images. Instead, the proposed algorithm which is SKF can be applied to original image and image under the vision problems like illumination and partially occluded. The SKF algorithm shows more robust, more efficient and more accurate to solve the distance measurement problem.

In 2017, there are about 20,000 species of butterfly has been discovered all over the world. Butterfly is well known because of its beautiful wings pattern and its benefits to the environment. In this research, butterfly species recognition is automated using artificial intelligence. Pattern on the butterfly wings is used as a parameter to determine the species of the butterfly. The butterfly image is captured and the background of the image is removed to make the recognition process easier. Local binary pattern (LBP) descriptor is then applied to the processed image and a histogram consist of image information is computed. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used to classify the image. Two types of butterfly species were selected namely ideopsis vulgaris and hypolimnas bolina. Both of the species have been correctly identify with accuracy of 90% (for ideopsis vulgaris) and 100% (for hypolimnas bolina).

Steering control for path tracking and navigation are important for the autonomous vehicle. A good steering control system can determine the success of autonomous navigation through designed paths. Comfort and safety for the passenger are the main concerns in developing a controller for an autonomous electric vehicle (AEV). Comfort and the safe autonomous system can be achieving by imitating human intelligence and decision-making ability into the controller. A GPS module couple with a fuzzy controller to follow the designed path. Steering is control by using brushless DC motor with certain gear configuration. In order to achieve better drive performance for the autonomous vehicle, the behaviors of human subjects are studied and investigated. Investigation of steering angle on 3 different paths is designed to study the driving patterns by the human subjects, which are straight, turn right and turn left. The results show satisfactory outcomes as the subject navigates through the designed path with the similar patterns. The average value of steering wheel angle for the straight, right and left path are 13°, −151°, and 237°, respectively. The maximum angle to turning to the left and right are 286° (subject #1) and −226° (subject #1). This paper consists of the construction of a Fuzzy logic controller to control steering wheel and experiments set-up to develop the Fuzzy controller for an autonomous vehicle.

Since internet of things has brings a lot of benefits in various fields, the benefits in manufacturing is widely explored. While Industry 4.0 offers an integration concepts between current manufacturing devices with IoT. In I4, all the resources are connected, and information exchange became ease in shortest period. In any manufacturing application, statistical process control seems fit to be implemented because it shows the process trend as a tool. In this paper, consideration of the boundaries condition as SPC features is explained. Based on the five un behavioral trend conditions, engineers are able to make a process change and minimize the risk of losses and accidents. Eventually, the concept of SPR as an after Service is proposed, consisted of the combination of the element of IoT and SPC boundaries condition. The SPR as an after Service is proposed to be used for traceability tools in network environment.

This paper presents a robust color code tracking system using low-cost vision sensor Pixy CMUcam5 for cart follower in an indoor environment. The CMUcam5 camera mounted on the front of the cart to have a perfect vision for establishing tracking task. The camera gives an excellent performance that has the ability to identify a various number of targets with color code features. The acquired data in image view than transformed to the real coordinate. The experimental result shows that the proposed technique granted a slight error in average pixels and angle errors. As a conclusion, the project met with the objective of this research.

Nowadays, with the huge number of leaves data, plant species recognition process becomes computationally expensive. Many computer scientists have suggested that the usage of parallel and distributed computing should be strongly considered as mandatory for handling computationally intensive programs. The availability of high performance multi-cores architecture results the complex recognition system to become popular in parallel computing area. This paper emphasizes on the computational flow design to enable the execution of the complex image processing tasks for Ficus deltoidea varietal recognition to be processed on parallel computing environment. Multi-cores computer is used whereas one of them acts as a master processor of the process and the other remaining processors act as worker processors. The master processor responsibles for controlling the main system operations such as data partitioning, data allocation, and data merging which results from worker processors. Experiments showed that a multi-cores parallel environment is a very appropriate platform for pipeline image processing. From the results, the sequential complex image processing model and computational flow design are significantly improved when executed through parallel model under multi-cores computer system. As the number of cores increases, the computational time taken by the parallel algorithm becomes less.

In the research of the human motion analysis, the characteristic movements of the human upper body are intensively investigated for many applications such as sign language recognition, robot control and gait analysis. The human upper body consists of many body parts such as both arms including fingers, facials and head movements. Previously, many researches proposed various sensors to record arm movements and the acquired data are used to train the computer understand the behavioral motion of arms movements by using various algorithmic approaches. However, the current challenge is to increase the knowledge level of the computational systems to recognize gestural information containing in arm movements. The objective of this paper is to construct and derive the arm movement’s model based on the conceptual of ontology. The gestural information is investigated from characteristic features of arm movements. The knowledge of the computational systems about gestural information is developed by describing the characteristic features of arm movements in the form of the ontological framework. The ontological framework is defined as a structure containing characteristic features placed in mathematical order and has the relationship among them. Based on the mathematical model as proposed in this paper, the ontology framework could be used to describe knowledge of the arm gesture and could recognize it with a higher accuracy.

The surrounding conditions may influence the robustness of tracking performance. The objective of this research is to get the best tracking performance using Pixy CMUcam5 tracking camera while tracking the colour pattern. The RGB values from PixyMon image frame-grabber were extracted from the different light intensity. Each of the information taken from Pixy CMUcam5 was tabulated into the table. The result shows that the most suitable conditions for Pixy CMUcam5 to operates is within 58 to 205 lx of light in a closed environment as it gives a smooth and uniform RGB value. It shows that the camera may have too much of tracking errors if the light is too dim or too high in intensity. Several information such as RGB boundaries and RGB average values were measured with several algorithms using MATLAB. The tracking error rate being computed to get the best conditions for tracking performance. As the conclusion, the determinations of best tracking performance for CMUcam5 is important and it can be applied to other systems like mobile robot tracking.

The contaminant is one of the big concerns in food processing industry and metallic objects can be one of the contaminant factors since most of the food processing equipment and tools are composed of metallic parts. Metal detector is used because these contaminant objects might cause injury to the consumers. Moreover, even the smallest particle of metals can lead to machinery failure. In this study, we have developed an inspection system for detecting the magnetic remanence of the contaminants. The system utilizes a Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR) Mag3110 magnetometer. An Arduino operating software was developed for data acquisition of Mag3110, and identification of the presence of the contaminant. In order to optimize the position of the magnetometer so that detection sensitivity can be enhanced, we performed a simulation based on magnetic moment dipole. The system performance was evaluated using stainless steel balls. The developed system could detect a stainless steel ball having diameter as small as 0.1 cm. The detected signal is sent to the control panel to analyze the presence of a metal object. The magnetic response with respect to position of the sensor, different size of metal objects and magnetization effect, is studied as well.

An analytical approach is presented to estimate the amplified performance of a multichannel wavelength division multiplexing for optical transmission system. In order to gain power amplification with low noise figure, EDFAs are used. Since the gain bandwidth of EDFA is restricted to 35 nm wave-length of pumping, an additional amplifier has to be used as hybrid amplifier. In this paper, a system of multichannel WDM configuration of Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers without using Raman Amplifier and with Raman Amplifier are simulated, compared and analysed. In this investigation Raman amplifiers is being used beside the high-output-power of EDFA, for pumping, to improve performance. The study is based on the amplifier’s parameters, pumping wavelength and pumping power. To expand the proportions of light wave transmission, provide high capacity and raise flexibility of optical network technology the features of both amplifiers can perform together. An implementation of nonlinear photonics is illustrated by distributed Raman fiber amplification to enhance by accepting evolutionary change forward in fiber optic communication.

Vehicle detectors are useful to provide essential information such as parking occupancy and traffic flow. To create one robust vehicle detector which works not only in controlled environment (i.e. indoor), but it should also work in outdoor environment, a vehicle detection using magnetic approach is proposed. The magnetic signal of a vehicle will be measured based on magnetic remanence technique where it will be processed to a cloud database. To achieve a low-cost and sensitive system, a Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR) sensor is employed. With the combinations of software filter and state machine’s algorithm, the occupancy of the car park can be identified with high accuracy. After a few series of real field testing, it is shown that a vehicle in a parking lot can be detected by measuring the surrounding magnetic field that is disrupted by the presence of vehicles. The proposed system is tested for forward and reverse parking, and it shows a high accuracy detection for a B-segment sedan car. It can be expected that by using the proposed technique, detection of vehicles using a low-cost system with capability of online monitoring can be realized.

The emerging issue in complex joints such as human wrist is usually the disability to be precisely coordinated with a traditional mechanical joint. In such cases, mechanical differences between human and robotic joints could lead to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) and overconstraint due to the device over rotation, misalignment of the rotation axis and also the design of the device. This paper focuses on ergonomic comparison studies between the previous and present WRist-T devices. The result of the ergonomic study especially on anthropometry and ergonomic evaluation shows that the present model is better than the previous one.

This paper describes the pressure characteristic of fluid in a water line. There are many factors that influences pressure surge in a pipeline system such as fluid velocity, length, diameter and material of pipe. In this study, experimental data will be analysed for pressure transient study by using different water velocity. The relationship between fluid velocity and pressure will be explained throughout the paper. An experiment has been conducted in two different kinds of water line, which are known as open and close line. To study close water line system certain graph will be analyse to study pressure reaction when changing of the velocity of water. The result of this experiment is the change of fluid velocity may affect the rising or falling of the water pressure. The change of fluid velocity when closing the valve is related to water hammer phenomenon. Water hammer is happening when a fluid in motion is forced to stop or change in flow direction. Experimental data of this study proved that velocity is one of the factor that affects the fluid pressure in the piping system.

This document consists detail of project report, in which the title is electronic water balancing tool. The concept and background knowledge of the title has been studied and objectives has been set to investigate the interaction between the SN-IMU5D-LC gyro sensor with accelerometer and the Arduino UNO with servo motor as output. For that purposed, the gyroscope which produces analogue signals is connected to the Arduino through the analogue pins. The signals from the sensor will be processed by the Arduino and interpreted into the motion of two servo motors that are connected to the digital outputs of the Arduino. Thus, the movement of the device (specifically gyroscope) produces the motion effects of both servo motor either to right or left. The directions (angle) of servo motors could be negative or positive in x- and y-directions. Throughout the project, the group members have gained knowledge in creating developing an application for the SN-IMU5D-LC gyro sensor with accelerometer using Arduino IDE software and the wiring the circuit diagram of the product.

Soccer players are allowed to use their heads to direct the ball to the teammates during the game. Studies have shown that purposeful heading of the ball in soccer might cause long-term traumatic brain injury. In order to analyze the impact of soccer heading on the brain in the laboratory, a device that can launch the ball at constant speed is required. This project aims to develop a device, which can launch the ball towards a target such as an instrumented dummy headform at desired speeds. Two counter-rotating wheels that are rotated by two AC motors were used as the launching mechanism. The use of AC motors is economical, but their speeds cannot be easily controlled. Thus, a release mechanism that automates the switching of the motor as well as feeding the ball was developed. Testing shows that the device is capable of launching the ball up to a maximum speed of 18 m/s. This corresponds to the reported maximum heading speed in soccer. The use of the release mechanism allows the ball speed to be varied. A soccer ball launching device was successfully developed. The device is not only economical, but also capable of launching the ball at desired speeds.

Human experiences low-frequency excitation through driving which affect the human’s health. Research had been conducted over the years by using biodynamic model of seated human body to analyze and observe the effect of vehicle vertical vibration towards the subject. However, previous study only focuses on the effect of vertical vibration up to head segment without taking the brain effect into account. In this study, biodynamic model is modelled including the brain to study the impact of vibration on the brain. Spring-mass-damper system are used in this model to represent the biodynamic model of seated human body and compared with previous study. From the model, it shows that the proposed model able to show the significant impact that happen on the skull and brain when vibration is exerted to the human body.

Stability of vehicle has been the topic of interest among researchers for decades. Research conducted on vehicle stability relies on the vehicle’s lateral and longitudinal dynamics. In order to determine the longitudinal and lateral force acting on tires, the normal force that acts on the tire is required. Furthermore, the forces generated to move the vehicle are dependent on the vehicle’s mass. Smaller force is generated if the mass is low and vice versa. Therefore, in this paper, the vehicle modelling is conducted to determine the effect of lateral motion on the normal force generated. Dugoff’s tire model and combined vehicle dynamics are used to determine the characteristic of the vehicle. The lateral and longitudinal acceleration generated is used to calculate the normal force generated on each tire. Based on the result, a significant change in normal forces can be observed on each tire when a steering input of 0.05 rad is given. This shows a significant correlation between the lateral motion and normal tire force. Results obtained shows that normal force acting on the left and right side of the tires is affected by the direction of the lateral motion of the vehicle.

This paper describes the simulation for performance evaluation of fuzzy logic controller in pharmaceutical warehouse’s temperature and humidity control system by using MATLAB Fuzzy Logic Toolbox and MATLAB Simulink. MATLAB fuzzy toolbox is used where a fuzzy logic controller is designed to simulate the control system based on control input such as user desired temperature, user desired humidity and deviation from desired parameters. The output control will be the cool fan speed, operation speed of ventilation fan (humidifier) and exhaust fan (dehumidifier). The result will be described in terms of the speed of output actuators changing with the difference in input temperature and humidity. The results of the Simulink model with optimized efficient and good performance are presented. The main aim is to achieve the output actuators with good performance, stable and smooth as the desired set point temperature and humidity and also develop fuzzy inference control system to simulate and monitor the desired temperature and ventilation system in pharmaceutical warehouse area.

An optimized controller provides consistent performance with high accuracy and precision even in the presence of disturbance forces. Disturbance forces can be a cutting force or friction force or both. Tracking performance of a drive system is critically influenced by the mechanical structure, disturbance forces and work piece mass. Sliding mode controller is designed to compensate disturbance forces especially friction. This paper presents parameter tuning strategies in designing a sliding mode controller in compensating a nonlinear friction behaviour occurred in machine tools application. The main parameter properties of a sliding mode controller are identified and analyzed. The proposed methods are analytically designed and numerically validated by variability index performance. The result analysis is presented by comparison of tracking position errors of linear motion using proposed methods with lower variability index. The result shows that method a with approach b has lower tracking position error and lower variability index, hence a better chattering effect and tracking position error performance.

Integration between advanced control system theory and automation tools and technology brings about advancement in machining technology in tandem with requirement for smart and flexible manufacturing system. The integration takes in the form of seamless and automatic data communication between a CAD/CAM system and the more advanced control systems technology. This paper presents an interface design of a novel CAD/CAM-Simulink Data Exchange System (CS-DES) which links part geometry design using CAD/CAM technology with position controller scheme and algorithm designed in Matlab/Simulink environment. The proposed CS-DES system enhances data automation through formation of the graphical user input reference interface of the machine tools control system using NC manufacturing codes data as the reference input signal. The framework and role of CS-DES are elaborated and described in detail including pseudocodes generation for the CAD drawing graphical data integrated with the controller scheme designed in Simulink. The CS-DES interface was designed using MATLAB graphical user interactive development platform. Functions related to the user interface design are discussed in this paper. Finally, the system interface design of the data exchange system is expected to further enhance versatility of existing control system performance of a machine tool via creation of flexible input reference forms hence improving system accuracy, efficiency and productivity.

Optimal drilling path for printed circuit board is crucial in increasing productivity and reduce production costs. Single-solution Simulated Kalman Filter (ssSKF) is a new optimizer inspired by the Kalman filtering process. It uses only a single agent to solve optimization process by finding the estimate of the optimal solution. Principally, ssSKF algorithm uses the standard Kalman filter framework, aided by a local neighborhood technique during its prediction step. This paper reveals the potential of ssSKF as a good routing method in printed circuit board (PCB) drilling process. Experimental results indicate that the ssSKF algorithm outperforms the existing methods in searching a good route to speed up a PCB drilling process.

This paper investigates the performance of Sequential Random Search (SRS), Fixed Step Size Random search (FSSRS), Optimized Relative Step Size Random Search (ORSSRS) and Adaptive Step Size Random Search (ASSRS) methods on maximizing offshore wind farms power production. The RS based methods are used to tune the control parameter of each turbine to its optimum until the wind farm total power production is maximized. The validation of this investigation is performed using the Horns Rev wind farm model with turbulence interaction between turbines. Simulation results show that Optimized Relative Step Size Random Search (ORSSRS) produces higher total power production as compared to other types of RS based methods.

Internet of things emphasized on integration the process and management with the network by providing all the data on-board. To cope with the new era of management becomes a challenge to manufacturer especially to handle the manufacturing asset such as man, machine and management. Web-based management is an option to manage the manufacturing asset well. However, present web-based management oriented was independent furthermore there is a chance to integrate the web-based management with the existing manufacturing concept can be implemented. Based on the current manufacturing issues, the key characteristic and critical success factors for future manufacturing are identified in this paper. Skill gap, leadership, and traceability are critical success factor that needs to be strengthened before embedded the IoT into manufacturing. To develop the web-based management, the entity relationship diagram and sequence diagram are emphasized in this paper for graphical overall equipment effectiveness interface. The graphical overall equipment effectiveness interface represent the manufacturing data graphically in order to make the monitoring and operation verification process become ease by showing the data graphically.

This study focus on the water hammer pressure characteristic in water hydraulic system. Water hammer shock can cause negative impact to the water hydraulic system by damaging pipeline system, valve and pump. This will increase the maintenance cost of the system. There are many parameters that effect the pressure characteristic behaviours in the circuit such as pressure source, pump type and type of pipeline. All these parameters can affect the pressure behaviours due to change of the properties such as flowrate and resistance of water to the wall. Pressure water surge during water hammer mainly effected by pipeline length of the system. This paper shows that the pipeline length can give the impact to the pressure characteristic of low and high-pressure source from the pump. Result shows that water hammer can occur when the condition meet that long rigid pipeline length. Increasing length of the pipeline can make the flowrate of water increase and gives higher maximum pressure surge with continues isolate wave to the water hydraulic system. Water hammer will occur when 15.0 mm pipe-diameter of 10.0 m length is used in simulation. Model the water hydraulic circuit and simulate the system to study the behaviour using Simulink-Simscape from the MATLAB software as a virtual representation of a real-world system.

Super Twisting Sliding Mode (ST-SMC) controller belongs to a class of controller known as Sliding Mode Control (SMC). SMC is widely known as a robust controller and has been shown in literature to be an effective medium for excellent control performance especially regarding disturbance force rejection. However, the control performance of SMC is often affected by chattering phenomenon thus reducing the applicability of SMC as position controller of choice in machine tools application where chattering induced vibration cannot be tolerated. ST-SMC is constituted as a higher order SMC. This paper explores control performances of ST-SMC in term of chattering reduction by introducing two types of switching functions in the control laws of the controller; namely, a hyperbolic tangent function (HST-SMC) and an arc tangent function (Arc-ST-SMC). The control performances are analysed based on reduction in magnitude of the tracking error (RMSE) and reduction in magnitude component of the chattering elements observed in frequency domain. The optimized ST-SMC produced the best tracking performance but chattering effect is still persistent. In comparison, HST-SMC produced a comparable tracking performance to ST-SMC with minimal difference of only 12.5% (RMSE). HST-SMC offers a fair trade-off between tracking accuracy and chattering attenuation. On the other hand, arc-ST-SMC produced the most reduction in chattering.

The burning rate is a crucial element in the performance of a solid propellant rocket. Strand burner is a device used to measure the propellant burning rate at elevated pressure. Solidworks Simulation is one of the software that is capable of performing finite element analysis that widely used to estimate the mechanical behavior of materials and structures in engineering applications. The objective of this paper is to analyze stresses in developing safe strand burner by using Solidworks Simulation. The strand burner is designed and analyzed using Solidworks 2016 software. Solid standard mesh meshing element is selected for purpose. The withstand loads and stresses on strand burner physically structure is measured by both simulation analysis and hand calculation. The result show the safety factor on developing strand burner is obtained by both method is 2.31. Based on safety factor generated, the strand burner can be test until 60.61 bars (6.061 MPa). In conclusion, the burning test inside the strand burner chamber can be test up to 126 bars. The design is safe for operating conditions.

In metal cutting process, cutting force holds significant information of the cutting tool performance and material machinability. However, it still remains unclear regarding to the relationship between cutting forces and other cutting parameters, such as cutting speed and contact friction coefficient. The main objective of this paper is to design a feasible Finite Element model to estimate cutting behavior with high accuracy. Several FEM models are designed reflecting the process of orthogonal cutting. In the meantime, actual orthogonal cutting tests of mild steel AISI 1045 with TiCN-coated cermet tool are executed in order to observe the real life behavior. There are two significant phenomena can be observed from the simulation: chip thickness and contact length. It is proven that, combination of chip thickness and contact length plays major role in estimating cutting behavior with high accuracy.